


Important

by AlacritiousEidolon (p_3a)



Category: World of Warcraft
Genre: Ableism, Disability, Gen, Meta
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-02-02
Updated: 2014-02-02
Packaged: 2018-01-11 12:33:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 651
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1173123
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/p_3a/pseuds/AlacritiousEidolon
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Wrathion has something to say about the matter of his age and maturity.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Important

This is important, my friends, so listen closely.

The matter of my age is an oft-discussed one, and one with implications in your own world which I fear many do not realise. The important principle, however, is thus:

If somebody has been presented to you, by all rights, as an adult - then do not presume that they are a child. Treat them appropriately to the needs they are presenting you with, but do not assume that they are a  _child_  or that they comprehend things on the  _level_  of a child. Presume competence.

When you meet me, you are presented with a young man. I appear to be in my late teens to early twenties, by human standards; my late nineties to early hundreds, by elven ones. When you speak with me, no doubt my extended vocabulary and tenacious grasp on concepts far beyond what anything you might call a “toddler” would be capable of confirm that I am, indeed, appearing, behaving, and functioning as an adult.

So the fact that this changes when you learn of the fact that I was created - not  _born_ , not  _raised_ , I was  _artificially created_  the way you might create a fictional character or a mechanical construct - three years ago is… frustrating, to say the absolute minimum about it.

I did not have a human upbringing, so you would do the world a favour if you stopped comparing my social role to that which a human of my chronological longevity would occupy.

The world, you say? What a grandiose proposition. But there is something you do not understand. Despite not being a human, or from your world, my story has parallels  _to_ certain humans  _from_  your world. There are other young adults (and older ones) who are presumed to have the minds of children despite appearing by all decent standards to be adults, and to be entitled to the rights you grant your adults.

Sometimes, I hear justifications of the  _infantilisation_  of myself based around my  _behaviour_. And these justifications are not complex, nor, in my opinion, dreadfully  _sound_  - they more or less hinge around the idea that, because I do not handle my anger the way that is societally expected of adults in your world, that I could not possibly  _be_  one.

There are many,  _many_  adults in your world who behave the same “childish” way that I do under undue pressure, unexpected change, or the presence of overwhelming emotion. Some possess the same neurotype as me, others elsehow; and, despite these people possessing all of the accolades you purport to mean that they are an adult (including chronological age, and, often but not always, physical development) - your society treats them, and sometimes even has the  _gall_  to  _label_  them, as  _children_.

They are denied rights based on it. They are subject to invasive, non-consensual surgery[1] or the removal of the environment they feel most comfortable living in[2] based on it. They are subject to abusive therapy[3] based on it. Sometimes, they are murdered for it, and their murderers lauded for “putting up with them” for so long[4]. Often, all of this is at the hands of the people who claim to love them or, at the least, care for them.

Perhaps now you can understand a little better why this is a matter that is not to be taken lightly. When there are people who exist in your world who are treated the same way, and suffer for it, as the way that you treat and talk about my character on a meta level, then I believe things ought to be taken a little more seriously and, dare I say, a little more cautiously than simply a matter of “character defence”.

Do engage your mind a little on the matter before you turn what was, between Anduin and myself, a verbal skirmish - into something with far more absurd implications.

**Author's Note:**

> 1\. http://www.autistichoya.com/2013/09/literal-silencing.html  
> 2\. http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/virginia-woman-with-down-syndrome-seeks-power-to-live-the-way-she-wants/2013/07/20/76102a82-d789-11e2-a9f2-42ee3912ae0e_story.html  
> 3\. http://autismmythbusters.com/parents/therapy/the-truth-about-aba/  
> 4\. http://autism-memorial.livejournal.com/
> 
> Trigger warning for extreme ableism against developmentally and/or intellectually disabled people on all of these citation links.


End file.
